“So,” Carter said, running his hands through his soaked hair. “You gonna tell me what the problemo is?”

He looked like a giant buoy sticking straight out of the ocean.

I wiped the water from my eyes. “Remember Kate Crier?”

He pretended to think about it. “Vaguely. She was that girl that you wasted an entire year on, dumped your ass right before she left for college because her parents thought you were trash, and you’ve pined intermittently for over the years.” He paused. “Yeah, Noah. I remember Kate.”

“I found her today. Dead.”

He cupped his hands, dipped them into the water, and brought them up to his mouth. Carter is the only human I’ve ever run across who enjoys the taste of saltwater. He swished the water around for a moment like it was mouthwash, then spit it onto his board.

“Well, that’s not so hot,” he said.

I glanced at the dots of light along the shore. “No.”

“You found her?”

I detailed Marilyn’s visit and how I had come upon Kate.

Carter nodded in the dark, his enormous head moving slowly against the backdrop of the moon. “I’m sorry.”

I shrugged, listening to the waves die up ahead of us. “Her dad wants me to find out what happened.”

“Same guy that banned your car from his driveway because it looked like it might leak oil?”

“Same guy.”

Carter snorted. “I hope you told him to fornicate solo.”

I chuckled softly, shaking my head.

“But of course you didn’t,” Carter said, knowing the answer.

I leaned back on the board, my head floating on the surface of the water. The sky looked like a black piece of crepe paper that had been poked with several needles, bright beacons of light streaming through the holes. I hadn’t seen Kate in over eleven years, but now I felt as if a piece of me had disappeared.

“Well, at least they’ve got money,” Carter mumbled, patting the top of the water with his baseball glove–like hands. “So we know we’ll get paid.”

“We?” I asked.

He leaned forward and flattened himself onto his board, his long arms looking like small windmills as he began to paddle away. “Well, hell, I can’t have you sulking like one of my ex-girlfriends until you figure it out. I’ll be Hutch to your Starsky.”

I sat up and smiled. “Awesome.”

“Yeah, I am,” he said over his shoulder as he moved toward the shore. “Plus, Kate was my friend too at one time.”

I nodded to myself and wished that she were still alive to hear Carter say that.

12

I crawled out of bed early after our late-night surfing expedition, nursed my small hangover with a glass of orange juice, and headed out in the early morning traffic.

I took I-5 up to the eastern edge of La Jolla and then went east on Highway 52, a concrete artery that bisected San Diego County through the narrow, brush-lined canyons of University City and Clairemont Mesa. The highway had been nothing more than a dirt valley when I was growing up, but as people moved farther and farther to the east in order to still call San Diego home, the 52 became the newest freeway to connect the outer reaches of the county to the coast.

The medical examiner’s office was out in the wasteland of business parks known as Kearney Mesa. A triangular area surrounded by three different freeways, the region had slowly transformed itself over a period of about ten years from dusty vacant lots to low-slung white and gray buildings that housed every conceivable type of industry and business. It was nearly the geographical heart of San Diego, but seemed devoid of life or character.

The ME’s building was off Ruffin Road, and I parked in the lot out front. The office smelled like lemon, and I wrinkled my nose as the glass doors swung closed behind me. The area was small and compact—a chest-high counter, two desks, couple of filing cabinets, a radio on top of a television and VCR in the corner. A hallway disappeared off the back of the windowless room.

I rang the metal bell on the desk and fifteen seconds later James Minton emerged from the back hall and made a face like I’d forgotten to put pants on.

“Fuck you want, Braddock?” he asked, his voice a mixture of gravel and whine.

“Good to see you, too, James.”

The face remained. “No it ain’t. What the fuck you want?” He held up his pudgy hand before I could respond. “Know what? Don’t care what you want. Go away.”

I laughed. “I’ve missed you.”

His hand shrank to a middle finger.

Minton was medium height, with a gut that was anything but medium. He had on a white coat over a pair of jeans and a black T-shirt that barely contained his girth. A thin dark mustache snaked over his upper lip. The dark hair on his head was thinning, a fact he tried to cover up by buzzing it short. Dark gray eyes stared me down.

“I’m serious,” he said. “I don’t have time for you. Go away.”

“Can’t.”

“Door’s right behind you. Turn around and put one foot in front of the other. You’ll get it.”

I looked over the counter at him. “Why so bitter?”

He folded his arms across his chest, reminding me of a fat, angry Buddha. “Last time I saw you, I found you in the back, having moved a body and copying some records. Then that big asshole that follows you around picked me up and pinned me in the corner of the room until you were done.” He pointed a finger at me. “You fucked the whole thing up.”

“You didn’t answer the bell and I was trying to do my job.”

He waved a hand in the air, beads of sweat appearing on his forehead. “Whatever, Braddock. You pissed me off and I don’t like to be pissed off.”

I smiled. “Me either. But I’m not leaving.”

Minton stared at me for a moment, then rolled his eyes. “Two minutes.”

I nodded. “You get a DB last night?”

He pulled a clipboard off the wall behind him, looked at it for a moment, then nodded. “Yep.”

“Kate Crier?”

Minton looked again, then back at me. “Yep.”

“Cause of death?”

“Still to be determined.” He glanced at the clock on the wall. “One minute left.”

“Looked like strangulation from what I saw,” I said.

His left eye twitched. “Maybe.”

“Maybe?”

He gave a small shrug. “Couple other things I need to look at.”

“Like?”

Minton thought about it for a moment, then looked at the clock again. “Like your two minutes are up.”

“That wasn’t two minutes,” I protested.

“Was in my world.”

I didn’t want to push it because if I was going to learn anything about Kate’s death, I would need his help. I pulled a card from my wallet and placed it on the counter. “I’d appreciate a call when you know more.”

“Well, hell,” he said, raising his eyebrows. “I’ll get right on that, Mr. Private Dick. Emphasis on Dick. Just for you.”

I smiled. “Got two tickets behind the plate for Friday’s game. Dodgers are in town.” I opened the door to the hallway. Minton was the biggest baseball fan I knew. Great seats were his weakness. “Yours, if I get a call by the end of the day.”

He muttered something under his breath.